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Baseball Drops Series Finale To Stanford 11-4

PALO ALTO, Calif. - After jumping out to an early 3-0 lead at Sunken Diamond, Arizona State was unable to hold off Stanford, who scored eight runs in the fifth to pick up an 11-4 victory over the Sun Devils. The loss drops ASU to 29-16, 8-7 in Pac-10 play. Jeff Urlaub took the loss, dropping him to 5-2 on the year.

The game was shaping up to be a pitchers duel early on, but after Ike Davis led off the fourth with a double, Brett Wallace got to Stanford starter Matt Leva, sending a rocket over the right field wall for a two-run home run, his third of the season. Frank Mesa then tripled down the right field line and would come around to score on an RBI Single by Preston Paramore. Paramore's single gave the Sun Devils the cycle in the inning and a 3-0 advantage.

The Cardinal answered right back in the bottom half of the fourth on a two-run double by John Hester off of Jeff Urlaub. That cut it to 3-2 Arizona State after four. Stanford would score again in the fifth off three ASU pitchers. After Urlaub loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter, he would give way to Brett Bruneel. Bruneel retired the first batter he faced, but then back-to-back hits plated three runs for Stanford, giving them a 5-3 lead. After another HBP, Bruneel was relieved by Arreola, who inherited the bases loaded and one out. After a sacrifice fly scored another run, the Cardinal again loaded the bases with an infield single. Stanford's Jim Rapoport then broke the game open for the Cardinal. Rapoport sent a shot into left center that a diving Colin Curtis could not get to. The ball rolled to the wall, allowing Rapoport to come all the way around for an inside the park grand slam home run. That gave Stanford a 10-3 lead after five. They would add one more in the eighth before Curtis singled home Fox in the ninth to make it 11-4.

Matt Manship picked up his second win of the year thanks to his five innings of work. The Devils have dropped their second straight Pac-10 series.

Arizona State now returns home for a non-conference meeting with Arizona Tuesday night at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. After that the Sun Devils will take a weekend off while the student-athletes take their final exams. ASU will pick it back up again on May 12th when they host Oregon State for three games.